A new book about the naturalist and collector, Sir Hans Sloane, whose extensive collections were the basis for the British and Natural History museums makes it clear that slavers in Liverpool and Bristol were not the only ones to make fortunes from the vile trade, and have streets named after them in their honour, according to “Collecting the World: The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane” by James Delbourgo.

Sloane, who gave his name to London’s Hans Crescent, with the street sign on the Harrods store building, Hans Place, Hans Street and Hans Road, as well as Sloane Square, Sloane Street, Sloane Gardens and Sloane Grammar School, was a devoutly religious man whose beliefs didn’t stretch to regarding slaves as human beings when it was obscenely profitable not to He lived to a ripe old 92, rather more years than any of his slaves got, (30% died in transit, infant mortality rate was 50% in the first year and average life expectancy was 21/22) and was described with the hypocrisy of the age as having led a “virtuous” life when he died in 1753.

Slaver’s profits from enslavement abroad allowed them to afford philanthropy at home.